Prince George to meet his ‘adopted’ Bilby on tour?

As the Cambridge family continue their highly publicised tour Down Under, the media are vying for another peek at Prince George. Since the family were photographed boarding their plane to New Zealand Sunday evening, everyone clamoured for a look at the 8-month-old Prince, who was shown to have grown up significantly since his Christening last October.

As they arrived in Wellington, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took a back seat to the public’s, and the media’s, interest in their son, sending the gathered photographers into a frenzy. The next day, the young Prince was on the front of most newspapers worldwide.

On the occasion of George’s birth, the Australian government made a donation to Taronga Zoo, to support their bilby conservation programme. As such, a bilby (a native Australian nocturnal marsupial with large ears) was ‘adopted’ by The Duke and Duchess’ first child.

The public got their wish of family photos at Government House in Wellington, where the couple stayed for a few nights, and met with Plunket, as well as parents and their children of a similar age to Prince George. This was the second time we got to see the 3rd-in-line to the throne, after alighting from the RNZAF plane, and it will, hopefully, not be the last.

George is expected to meet this adopted marsupial at another engagement for the young Prince.

It is at the zoo we expect to see Prince George next – to open the bilby enclosure with his parents, which is to be named after him. It is thought George may meet this adopted bilby, which will undoubtedly provide adorable moments for some of the photographers to snap.

It is not certain that George will be in attendance on the day, as William’s personal secretary, Miguel Head, noted at the pre-tour press conference: “The couple will have to make a final decision on those moments much closer to the time,” but with such connections with the zoo, it seems highly probable that the young Prince will turn up for his second official engagement, at just nine months old.